Lionheart
by Luckyshiori
Summary: The plan was simple. Infiltrate the building, locate and extract the target, and get the hell out. Levi was never supposed to get close to the boy, he was never, under any circumstances, supposed to grow an attachment to him. All Eren wanted was an explanation to the questions his dreams posed, and through his quest for answers, he finds out just how frightening the truth can be.


**Authors Note: **Hey guys, Shiori here with the re-written version of a brand new Rieren (or Ereri, or Levi x Eren, or whatever you wanna call it) fic! This idea bitch slapped me in the face so hard that I _had _to write it out, hell, I even dropped my other story just to exclusively work on this one! I miraculously had the inspiration to write it, and for me that's something I have to take advantage of because it doesn't happen often, lol. I was originally inspired to write this after reading a BL manga called Acid Town by Kyuugou. You should check it out! It's really gritty, sad, and cute. :)

**Overall Warnings: **First and foremost, this story is Levi x Eren, meaning _slash_. Secondly, this is where I'll post the warnings for each chapter, because I don't want anyone to read something they aren't comfortable with! Moving on, this fic is going to be dealing with some real life deep shit like child abuse, PTSD, sex, some dubious-consent situations, violence, drugs, cursing, character death, gore, psychological & physical torture (you know, the _tear-jerking_ stuff) and just dark content in general. Tread with caution my friends, because while this fic will have cute and fluffy moments, (this is _me_ you are talking about) if you're looking for an Ereri fic with a sparkly first love, blushing every five seconds, when-will-senpai-notice-me kinda feel, you've come to the wrong place. Still here? Welcome to the dark side, mwahahahahaha! Okay, I'll stop yapping now. Why are you still reading this!?

**Disclaimer: **I regrettably do not own Attack on Titan, (if I did it would be way more gay) that right belongs to Hajime Isayama. I just love to write about the amazing characters, settings, and storyline of this wonderful anime/manga.

Lionheart

Prologue

Darkness.

A hopeless and overflowing darkness surrounded him. It reached out of every corner, it seeped through every crack and engulfed him in its black, choking grip. It was suffocating him gently, and with precision, carefully taking its time with him as if he were something precious. It was expertly attempting to destroy his mind, body, and soul, as if it was under the impression that he could actually _break_ any further. He gave out a strangled gasp, his breath hitching at the action, as he inhaled desperately for air, gagging on the stifling shadows.

It was no use. The bleak dark was asphyxiating him with every ragged breath he took, but Eren knew this feeling all too well, its familiar blackness clouding him with intimate nightmares. It was a feeling that reminded him distinctively of times long past when life was simpler because he was enveloped in the blissful ignorance of childhood where he was safe from his dark dreams and not imprisoned in a small, disgusting, foul-smelling room that held no light.

Is this real or is this a _nightmare?_

Chapter One

Obstinate Reality

Eren opened his eyes.

Cold. Fatigue. Ache.

Everything around him was hazy, as if thick smoke was filling the air, clouding his vision and causing him to squint just to be able recognize the familiar surroundings of his room.

Except this wasn't his room.

He was in a cramped, dimly-lit holding cell of some kind, his hands tied skillfully behind his back, and, the most shocking of all, he was completely and utterly _naked._

Eren knew he was completely bare because while he could just barely make out his scrawny legs sprawled out in front of him in the murky light, he could very precisely feel the coldness of the hard concrete floor he was laying on seeping into his naked skin and causing goosebumps to prickle across his taunt flesh. He was suddenly very aware of how uncomfortably freezing it was, and his body let out a violent shiver that made him groan in pain. His tired body ached everywhere but he managed to curl himself into a fetal position from his spot on the floor.

It was so fucking cold.

"...Wha...t..." Eren breathed to the darkness quietly, barely managing to choke out the confused word as his voice cracked pathetically. His throat was impossibly dry and he licked at his chapped lips, nibbling away at his bottom lip out of habit. His cheek lay against the hard ground as he fluttered his eyes and swallowed thickly, slowly coming to the edges of existence.

The freezing temperature of the room must have broke him out of his dream-like stupor, and he shook his head slowly, purging himself of the terrifying images of his nightmare and coming back to reality and his senses. He racked his tired brain for answers, a perturbed look coming across his face as he scanned the unfamiliar room.

That hadn't been a nightmare...this was real?

This was real.

Several questions sounded off in his head at once, like bombs going off amidst a raging battlefield. Where was he? What day was it? What the hell was going on? Where was Mikasa? Where was Armin? His parents?

Eren's blood suddenly ran ice cold, colder than the hard floor, colder than the icy air, with a horrible realization.

His face screwed up into a twisted expression of anguish and he immediately began shaking frantically, his eyes widening in panic. He curled himself into a fragile ball, breathing heavily out of his nose.

"Oh god..." Eren cried out in horror as he curled himself even deeper, his own personal little ball of despair, "Please...oh god...oh my god...please no," He spoke to the grey floor, tearless sobs racking his crumpled body.

"Not this. Anything but this..." He whispered to himself in disbelief, but he couldn't reject the truth. Eren didn't want to think, he didn't want to move, he didn't want to exist anymore. Everything hurt, his aching muscles had the lingering burning sensation of getting the absolute shit beaten out of him. He was no stranger to the feeling and was well adapted to pain, but the aching, wretched feeling in his heart burned with an intensity that he had never felt before.

He had always been somewhat of a troubled kid, deliberately disobeying his parents and constantly getting into street fights, so pain, he could handle. He could handle broken fingers, he could handle black eyes, sprained ankles, punches to the face. But this feeling, this horrible feeling of despair and anguish, this black _nothingness_ in his chest, he just wasn't equipped to deal with.

Dealing with his emotions had never been his forte, so when faced with these devastating feelings, Eren completely broke down, his heart deteriorating. If his hands weren't bound behind him, he would have clutched at the empty hole in his chest in a fit of absolute misery because he remembered almost everything clearly.

_There was blood everywhere._

_Eren had no idea what he was doing, no fucking idea what was going on, but his mother lay brokenly in his arms clutching at her neck desperately, her voice gurgling and making a hideous noise. The blood wouldn't stop. It just kept coming and coming, spurting out of the open gash over her jugular vein and staining her sun dress and the white carpet underneath with sticky, crimson stains. He looked on, helpless, as his mother watched the ceiling fan above them with tormented eyes. She looked as if she trying to speak but all that came out was strangled coughing and more blood._

_She was choking on her own blood, he realized with a panicked expression._

_Eren was speechless, as this had all happened in a matter of seconds. One minute he was walking up the old crumbling steps up to their house on his way home, and the next moment, he opened the front door and she was just laying there on the living room floor, bleeding._

_She was dying, quickly and painfully._

_Eren gasped loudly in dreadful awareness with the realization that his mother was __**dying**__, and he grasped her hand so suddenly and so tightly that her eyes widened in complete surprise. She finally looked at her son properly in the eyes, as if she was just noticing him next to her for the first time. Her eyes held pain. They held anguish, and most of all, what had unhinged him the most, was that they held regret._

_"Oh my god," Eren choked out, eyeing her broken form with desperate, confused eyes. "Mom...what...WHAT HAPPEND!? WHAT IS GOING ON!? FUCK!" Eren cursed angrily, his voice filled to the brim with a kaleidoscope of emotions. He clutched her unoccupied hand in his own, the action of their hands clasping together making a sickening, squishing noise from the blood sliding across their interlaced fingers._

_"Please, just look at me. Don't look anywhere else. Just...just look at me, okay?" He sobbed out to her, his voice shaking. How did it come to this? How did this happen?_

_She stared at him like she wanted to say something, but she instead took her crimson coated hand out of Eren's tight grip and cupped her son's face with a tender gentleness, treating him as if she thought he was going to break into a million pieces._

_She gave him a heart breaking smile, the laugh lines on her face crinkling at the gesture, her eyes locking with his own. Eren gawked at her with an unblinking stare, a hideous expression of dread twisting across his face as the darkness took ahold of her. He looked on in absolute horror as the light slowly left her soft brown eyes, and just like that, it was over._

_The hand gripping his check fell to the ground with a soft thud._

_Eren quickly captured it seconds after it hit the ground and grasped it fiercely to his chest, not willing, not ever willing, to let go of her._

_He stared at her in disbelief._

_She was his everything. The one who never doubted him, had always supported him when he failed, and cheered him on when he succeeded. She put up with his fighting, his attitude problems, and with all the trouble he got himself into. Despite being a difficult, troubled child, she still had raised him the best that she could, she treated him lovingly, like a true son, like a human being._

_And now she was gone._

_Eren, fraught with an indescribable feeling of remorse, crushed his mothers lifeless corpse to him and choked out a pained gasp, "No..." He whispered into her delicate shoulder, not caring in the slightest that the front of his shirt had become entirely drenched in her blood._

_He desperately clutched her unmoving form to his chest, his hands gripping around her so tightly that he could still feel her familiar warmth, and also the revolting crimson wetness pressed between them. The disgusting smell of iron in the air was so thick that it invaded every pore, every fiber of his being, gagging him._

_He completely lost it._

_"M-mom...?" Eren stuttered out to her, a child-like innocence invading his voice. She did not answer back. His heart broke into a million pieces._

_He let out a blood-curdling scream._

_**BANG!**_

Eren didn't really remember too much of what happened after that, except that he heard the sound of a gun shot going off from below them and saw a group of rough looking men sprinting up the stairs from his father's basement.

He remembered an uncontrollable feeling of pure hatred rising within him at looking upon their faces. He lost all reason and logic, screaming up to the heavens in an incoherent rage-filled battle cry as he thoughtlessly charged face first into the group of men. Of course, he had been seized by the neck before he could even lay a single finger on the bastards.

He remembered the kicking, the punching, the strangling, the wind being knocked out of him. He remembered being thrown to the ground so violently that he felt his head smack against the floor and his vision going hazy from the impact. He had curled into a defensive position as he was brutally attacked from every angle possible, and having no way of protecting himself from the onslaught of kicks and punches, he tried helplessly crawling away on his hands and knees from the group of thugs, reaching out towards his mother's corpse.

He vaguely remembered a particularly savage(probably steel-toed)boot to the side of his face, and he knew at that moment that he couldn't stop the darkness from taking him. The last thing he recalled as his eyes slowly rolled into the back of his head, eyelids slowly fluttering shut as he faded away into the black streams of unconsciousness was the image of his bruised hand extended toward's his mother's unmoving form, the ivory plush beneath her dyed a dark shade of rogue.

An image that would be burned into his mind for the rest of his life, no doubt.

Pulling himself out of his heart breaking recollection, Eren let out a shaky breath from his position on the floor, his jittery exhale causing all the dust and particles on the concrete to scatter about in the air in front of him.

He thought it had all been dream, that it had just been another one of his horrible, twisted nightmares. But it wasn't...this was reality. His family was dead. His mother had been _slaughtered._ His father, while Eren wasn't entirely sure, had most likely fallen prey to the loud gun shot he heard before he'd gone nuts and attacked those _filthy_ animals.

His father might be alive...but he knew there was no chance for his mother. He had seen it with his own two eyes, there was no mistake. And yet, he didn't want to believe it.

He was in complete shock. Distant words echoed throughout his mind, inescapable.

_Life is cruel._

Wasn't Mikasa the one who had told him that?

He realized that he had somehow ceased his frantic trembling at some point through his recollection of the traumatic event, and he laid there weakly on his side on the dirty, rigid ground.

He had so many unanswered questions. How did this happen, why? Where was he now? The last thing he remembered was getting his ass handed to him and then—darkness, he passed out and woke up to this shitty, cold room. Had those men kidnapped him? If so, were they going to kill him too? How long had he been here? Why the hell was he naked? He had absolutely no idea, but he didn't want to think about it anymore, as facing the reality of what happened was too painful.

So he didn't.

He felt...numb.

Breaking out of his depressing thoughts, Eren, having no access to his bound hands, arched his back up against the wall and used the flat surface as leverage as he barely managed to push himself against it, forcing his body into a sitting position. He grimaced in pain, instantly regretting his decision as the burning sensation from earlier pooled viciously his stomach.

He felt an unfamiliar rush of vertigo at the sudden action, and began to feel an intense pounding in his head. He licked at his chapped lips again, and he abruptly became very aware of just how frail he felt in his current condition. He had absolutely no strength, and felt as if he hadn't eaten in days.

Eren began to wonder how long he had been unconscious for, just how long had he been imprisoned here? Days..._weeks?_ He didn't have the slightest clue.

There were just too many unknowns in this situation.

A thought struck him just then, like a knife cutting effortlessly through the stale air around him. Fear gripped his heart, and he gasped lowly, his eyes widening. Just how long were they going to keep him in here? Were they going to keep him locked away in this dark prison to rot for eternity?

There was no way. He wouldn't accept it. If he had to stay here for the rest of his life he would go _insane._ That was a fate far, far worse than any death. One of his largest, most well-kept secrets was his fear of the dark. His second largest fear was closed, cramped spaces.

And this situation had _both _ofthem. Fuck.

"They can't do that...there's no god damn way," he muttered to himself in between panicked breaths, eyes screwing shut in frustration, and at his own weakness.

He shook his head furiously and took in a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He wasn't stupid. Yeah, he was hardheaded and passionate and often let his emotions get the better of him in most situations, but he knew he was in some real deep shit this time around. He needed to keep a level head in order to be able to get his bearings in this dangerous situation, or he wouldn't make it out alive.

He had to put his emotions and questions aside, however hard that may be, and think logically about the predicament he was in.

_I can't break down right now. Not now. Not here._

Resolved with his thoughts, Eren wiggled his hands behind him, testing his binds. It felt similar to rope, but it didn't budge an inch. Whoever tied him up obviously had previous experience with it, and that realization made him absolutely sick to his stomach. If they thought that he was going to play along with their little kidnapping game like a good little boy they were making a very _deadly mistake_.

He sat up straighter against the wall, folding his legs indian style and making a _tch_ noise in annoyance. The pain in his side worsened at the action, along with his mood. They had really done quite the number on him.

Eren frowned.

_I'll have to return the favor..._He thought darkly.

Snapping out of his revenge-filled thoughts, he glanced about the room, trying to take in his gloomy surroundings.

He wrinkled his nose in disgust.

The smell of this place was rancid, and that was putting it mildly. He could very strongly make out a stale, spoiled smell from the rotting walls he was imprisoned in, and the vile stench of human body fluids. It was a mixture of sweat, blood, and piss, among other unmentionables. Depending on how long he had been here, he had to speculate that those body fluids probably came from him.

Eren's face morphed into a revolted grimace and he scowled darkly as he attempted to properly asses the situation he was in.

He had been kidnapped by a group of men, he assumed the same group of men that had murdered his parents, was tied-up and completely naked in some kind of containment cell, barely had enough strength to even sit up properly, had no idea where he was or how he got here, and most importantly, he had no way of defending himself. He was a sitting duck. A naked, unarmed, sitting duck.

"Shit," He muttered, agitated.

He glared angrily at the dim, flickering light bulb hanging from the cracked ceiling overhead, as if it was the source of all his problems. Eren sighed dishearteningly, finally beginning to understand the gravity of his position. He had no way of fighting back, no way of defending himself against the assholes that had single-handedly ruined his life in a matter of minutes. He hated feeling like this, like he couldn't do anything. It was pathetic. He felt powerless, but the worst of it all, was that he felt completely helpless.

And if there was a feeling that he absolutely despised, it was feeling helpless.

_**BANG!**_

It was at that moment when he starting hearing gunshots.

_**BANG!**_

The loud, booming sound had Eren immediately alarmed, and he perked up from his position on the floor, staring at the dimly illuminated wooden door across the room with a shocked look. His heart sped up as he heard more thundering shots, realizing that someone was firing off rounds in the building.

_**BANG! BANG! BANG!**_

"What the hell?" He questioned to himself, voice still raspy from disuse. He heard more gunshots and the voices of frantic men yelling from beyond his cell. He heard heavy footsteps running past his door, and more stopping just in front of it and then suddenly, his room was enveloped in a blinding light.

Eren squinted at the harsh light engulfing the room, his eyes not quite used to the brightness from being locked away in a dark room for who _knows_ how long. A figure stood in the doorway.

"Ugh, smells like pig shit in here," A rough voice spoke to him.

When his vision cleared, he could see a tall, gruff looking man standing in the entryway to the room. He instantly recognized the face. How could he not remember that horrible face, as it had been permanently burned into his memory along with the seething thoughts of revenge he had when he lost consciousness back at the house.

It was one of the men from before, the one who had grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the floor while the rest pulverized him into the ground.

"Time to leave the cage, little birdy," The man spoke sarcastically with an ugly sneer on his face. He stepped closer, and steel-toed boots came into Eren's vision. The man took a knife out of his pocket and walked closer to the boy, the clacking of his boots against the floor like a warning alarm.

_Clack. Clack. Clack._

_Stay away from me!_

"Don't _fucking_ touch me, asshole!" Eren hissed at him viciously, rising to his feet quickly and ignoring the intense amount of pain igniting all over his body at the abrupt action. His fight or flight response kicking in instantaneously, he charged at the man in all his naked glory, screaming bloody murder and taking him completely by surprise.

Eren sprinted out of the room and tackled the man into the wall across from his cell, fiercely head-butting him into the wall. The man cried out in pain, brutally hitting his head against the hard concrete walling of the building and dropping the knife out of his hand. It fell to the ground with a loud _clang._ The man slumped against the wall limply, then he wrapped his hands around the back of his head, rolling on the ground in agony. There was a blood stain on the wall from where his head impacted, the crimson liquid slowly trickling down the flat surface.

Seeing the stain, Eren felt a smoldering anger. That was not enough, the man deserved so much more. Eren was not going down without a _fight._

_Little birdy my ass!_ He seethed inwardly, his rage building.

Taking advantage of the man's weakened state on the ground, he quickly kneeled to the floor and pushed his bound hands up against the knife that had flew out of the other man's hand. He watched his enemy like a hawk as he withered around miserably on the floor, while moving his hands desperately against the knife in order to free himself.

He risked looking behind his back for a second and could just barely see the rope starting to come loose when he was suddenly grabbed from the front and put into a choke hold.

"Let go me! Let go of me, you piece of shit!" Eren howled at the man holding him hostage in fury as he kicked his legs in every direction, not willing to be caught by him. His face was suddenly shoved ferociously up against on the wall, his vision going white hot, pain invading his senses. Eren almost lost consciousness right then and there, his body being pushing to its limit in such a weakened state.

"How does it feel?" The man continued, whispering dangerously low into his ear, "How does it feel to have your face shoved into a concrete _fucking_ wall?" The man's breath smelled of liquor, the toxic smell almost making Eren empty the contents of his stomach all over himself and the floor.

The man began roughly grinding his face into the bloodstain against the wall and laughing manically. Was he drunk? Or just insane? It was probably a mixture of both, but Eren didn't have time to mull it over before a loud voice from behind them caught both of their attention.

"What the fuck are you doing? Leave the kid! There's a guy upstairs that's taking out _everyone. _Boss says to scram!" He heard the nasally voice bellow out from behind them.

Another one of them.

Eren, not missing the chance this distraction offered, quickly swung his legs out against the man holding him hostage. He successfully tripped him and threw him to the ground, and despite his aching muscles screaming at him with every step he took, he sprinted with all his might down the barren hallway, his only thought to get away from the danger.

He didn't even look back once to see if they followed him, he just ran, and ran, and ran. Eren had no idea where he was going, he didn't even know where the hell he was, but his instincts told him to flee, to keep running, to not stop for anything_,_ and if there was at least one thing that he completely trusted in this fucked up world, it was his instincts.

It was the only thing he could truly rely on.

Eren breathed out heavily, almost completely out of breath at this point as he turned another corner and pumped his legs furiously to run down the corridor. He had no idea how long he had been running for, or in which way he ran, but he instinctively rushed away from all the commotion, the screams of pain, the bang of the gunshots, the howls of anger, willing his legs to carry him faster.

_I can't keep this up much longer, I need to find an exit. _He thought shakily, his vision blurring. It felt like he was going to pass out if he stopped running, the only thing keeping him active and conscious was the adrenaline pumping through his veins. If he stopped now he would die, he was sure of it.

Nearing the end of the corridor, he suddenly became aware of how quiet the building had become. It was strange though, as if something in the air had changed. Something about this place seemed abnormally _off._ The silence of the hallway was deafening him, and suddenly, Eren was irrationally afraid.

He was absolutely terrified, of what exactly, he wasn't sure, but something inside him knew that the atmosphere of the building had changed somehow. It seemed almost stagnant, the air around him more dangerous than before. His instincts began to kick in again, his heart rate speeding up to an almost violent velocity as he took in a shaky breath with paranoid eyes, completely on edge. He knew he needed to keep moving, to keep running with everything he had.

_Don't stop for anything._

The area around him was so soundless, the only thing Eren could hear was the slapping of his bare feet against the dense floor and the pounding sound of his own heartbeat in his ears. How long had his surroundings been this silent?

Something was wrong. It was _too quiet._

Pushing the paranoid thoughts out of his head entirely, he focused all of his attention into getting out of the building. He couldn't afford to think about anything else right now. Finally reaching the end of the hallway, he swiftly turned to his right and ran into something hard and unwavering with a _slam!_ The force of the blow from whatever he collided into had him tripping over his own two feet and he fell back against the wall, his head forcibly crashing into the corner of the wall with a sickening _smack!_

He eyes flew open instantly at the sudden jolt of pain emanating from the open gash on his head, his mouth agape in a silent cry of agony.

_What the hell did I run into!? _Eren thought, utterly distressed at this point, as his hands flung their way to the back of his head. He felt a sticky wetness there, and his entire body spasmed in pain, both from the fresh wound on his head and his broken body crying out to him hysterically at being pushed far, far beyond its capabilities in such a battered condition.

"_Tch._ You're filthy," A deep, cold voice spoke out to him from his position on the floor, breaking him out of his pained reverie. Black combat boots entered his vision, and for the first time since waking up to this nightmare, Eren did nothing but _stare._

He didn't spring into immediate action, didn't start urgently planning a way to escape, he didn't even shield himself against the onslaught of attacks that he was sure he was going to receive within the next couple of seconds. He just simply stared at the short man before him, an expression of complete and utter shock morphing across his face.

He felt too exhausted to move, regardless.

He suddenly _froze._

The first thing that came to Eren's mind was _grey like whoa._ The man had the most fierce steel-grey eyes, like the color of darkened rainclouds after a terrible storm swirling into deep black irises in the center, hidden behind long, dark lashes. They were frighteningly captivating, rooting him in place so quickly that he never even stood a chance against their piercing onslaught.

He sucked in a sharp breath, feeling like his heart was going to burst out of his ribcage. The second thing he noticed about the man was his short hairstyle, black in color, the length stopping just past his thin temples. The man was wearing an expensive looking black leather jacket with a black v-neck shirt underneath, along with a pair of dark-colored jeans.

His skin was so pale that Eren could faintly make out the thin blue veins underneath the white, almost translucent, color of his wrists. The man held nothing in his hands besides a gun, his grip on the weapon deathly tight.

He looked like the angel of death.

The thing that shocked Eren the most was his stare. The man watched him carefully, calculating every expression, every emotion that flashed across the young brunets face. His face was completely stoic and unreadable, and Eren let out a breath he had no idea he was holding when the man narrowed his eyes, piercing right through him as his gaze intensified. His eyes wandered along the length of his bare, defenseless body.

It was intimidating, to say the least. The man stared at every inch of him, eyes trailing up and down his body, leaving him wide open to his terrifying inspection. Eren felt like one of those butterflies pinned to a white board, completely exposed and unprotected while onlookers violated him with their unwanted stares.

He was suddenly aware of how naked he truly was, and his cheeks reddened in embarrassment.

He had no idea how long he had been staring at the man, but his intimidating stare hypnotized the young boy. His eyes were emotionless, but undeniably dangerous. They were cat-like in nature, almost _predatory._ His eyes made Eren feel so small, so instantly aware of his domineering presence. They blazed through his own deep emerald with such a burning intensity that they unquestionably demanded his attention. Eren couldn't look away if he tried.

Eren could feel how thick the tension in the air was, and he swallowed nervously, feeling slightly flushed and warm from such a commanding look. His head started to feel a bit dizzy, a strong warmth spreading through out his entire body like a wildfire. His green eyes glazed over slowly, and he felt so _light,_ like he was about to fall away from reality any second.

"Oi," The man called out to him, breaking him out of his unguarded trance.

All of a sudden, warning signs sounded off in his head. He knew he was slowly losing consciousness, and he became incredibly frantic. Passing out now ultimately meant death. If he passed out here and now, he would die, there was no question in his mind that he wouldn't. The threatening aura that was coming off in murderous waves from the man in front of him gave him all the proof that he needed. He berated himself internally, disgusted with himself that he was acting so weak.

The air around them became increasingly tense as the man stared him down in a stand off, watching all the emotions run rampantly across his face as if he was calculating the boy's next move. A trained killer.

_What are you doing!? Fight! _He screamed at himself inwardly.

Eren weakly, but quickly rose to his feet and tried to make a break for it, but the man was quicker and, obviously anticipating this, shoved him up against the nearest wall with such brute force that Eren had wind knocked out of him. He summoned every ounce of strength he had left into fighting against the man's hold, screaming at him with all his might, biting into his shoulder as hard as he could to cause him to loosen his grip, but the man did not give even the slightestease on his restraint.

As he struggled furiously against him, Eren was surprised. The man didn't use the gun against him, he didn't even move to attack him, he just simply held him up roughly against the wall, using his arms to pin him in a harsh, unwavering constraint. The man watched him impassively as he struggled, as if he were watching a deer struggle and twitch fruitlessly after being impaled by a hunter's bullet.

Eren met his gaze with a furious stare of his own. He was met with an apathetic grey. Or was it...unimpressed?

He realized, an expression of absolute fury spreading across his face, that he was being looked down upon. This made him all the more enraged as he strived even harder against his enemy, expending all his energy in the process.

Minutes of pointless struggling later, and eventually, Eren ceased his urgent movements against the man, his breathing coming out in loud, battered gasps for air. His head slumped weakly against the man's shoulder and his body went limp in his hold, exhausted beyond all belief. That was it. That was his last chance, and he had failed miserably. He was too weakened, he was throughly spent, utterly drained of every ounce of stamina in his body, right down to his very core.

Eren weakly used his forehead to pathetically push against his captive's shoulder, a last ditch effort to escape his confinement. It was no use.

He narrowed his eyes in realization.

That _bastard._

He had fallen into his trap like a complete thoughtless idiot_, _pitifully struggling against him and spending every last bit of his strength into getting himself free. There was nothing more he could do, he had no energy, no more power to use against him. The man had been waiting for him to act, gauging his reactions from the emotions plastered clearly across his face from the _moment _he bumped into him. He had deliberately waited for Eren to make the first move, and had adjusted himself accordingly in a matter of seconds so that he could gain the upper hand in the situation.

The man was not only strong, but intelligent.

Eren never stood a chance in the first place.

"Who...are you?" Eren mumbled lowly into his captive's shoulder, a barely audible whisper. He just felt so dazed, like everything in the room was spinning and morphing into a giant blur of bland, tasteless colors. What seemed like a moment later, and the man, with lightening fast reflexes, loosened his hold on Eren and dropped him to the ground as if he were nothing more than a useless piece of trash.

It all happened in the blink of an eye, and he wondered idly if he was just dreaming again. That this was all just a vastly drawn out, horrible, nightmare that he couldn't wake up from. But as Eren fell harshly to the ground, falling on his knees with a sharp _smack_ against the hard flooring, he realized that once again, this was the harsh reality that he could not wake up from. A reality that was worse than his childish nightmares, worse than his deepest, blackest fears. An inflexible reality that he could never escape from.

The real world.

His hands still bound wretchedly behind his back, Eren's head fell limply to his chest, his entire body going slack and disconnected. He didn't even have enough strength to lift his head to look his would be killer in the face like a real man. He jolted when felt something cold and hard pressed firmly under his chin, and the force of it caused his head to rise unwillingly. He realized, with a vague haziness, that the object below his chin was the tip of a gun.

A small, humorless chuckle escaped his mouth when he realized he was going to die on his _knees._

After what seemed like a lifetime of time passing, the man, using his weapon to delicately lift the boy's face to his gaze, finally reached a point where he could stare into the tortured eyes of his victim.

Eren's eyes met an inescapable, distant grey. Emotionless and ashen, those steel-grey eyes cut through him so deeply that he could feel their intensity in the very marrow of his bones. The man's stare, devoid of any emotion and filled to the brim with a blank nothingness, kindled something deeper inside of Eren, a spark of something angry, hostile, and full of desperate defiance.

With a final effort to defy his executioner till the very end, Eren glared defiantly back at him, not once averting his heated stare. Even if he had no strength left, even if the man tortured him to death and ripped him apart limb from limb, he would use his teeth to bite him, he would use his eyes to petrify him, he was not going to die a damn coward.

"My name is Levi," The man stated matter-of-factly as he towered over Eren dominantly, asserting his pressure over him and peering into the very breaches of his soul.

"Fuck you," Eren viciously spat out at him. Summoning his courage, he gathered all the saliva he had in his dry, cracked mouth and spat furiously at the other man's face, hitting his target square in the jaw.

Ah, yes. The one good thing that happened to him since he'd woken up in this shit hole. Eren almost wanted to cry out in utter joy at his success.

His expression fell when he saw Levi's face.

Levi smirked, but his eyes narrowed into slits at such an open display of rebellion. Quickly, as fast as a provoked cobra striking at it's enemy, he grabbed ahold of Eren's chin in a vice like grip, the sheer strength of his hands covering over Eren's mouth and squishing his cheeks together in a painful hold that shocked the younger boy entirely.

Levi brought their faces together so close that their noses were just barely brushing, the spit on the other man's face smearing sloppily on Eren's right cheekbone.

"It's a been a pleasure," Levi breathed out, his hot breath tickling along the length of Eren's face.

Eren panicked at having his usual supply of air blocked off, and his breathing forced its way out of his nose harshly, becoming strained and urgent from the lack of oxygen coming through his mouth. He felt like he was slowly suffocating and was reminded very distinctly of the hallucination he experienced this morning as he was waking up to that horrible room.

He felt the cool tip of the gun retreat from under his chin and suddenly his world was enveloped in a frightening darkness. Levi had taken away the gun and clasped his hands over Eren's eyes, effectively blocking off his sight and rendering him blind to the world. His touch was ice cold.

Oh god.

No...this was exactly like his hallucination, the identical twin to his frightening nightmare. In fact, maybe it hadn't been a hallucination at all, but a premonition of death.

_His death._

His heart filling with fear, Eren let out a terrified whimper, and it sounded pathetic to even his own ears. He began trembling quietly, his mind crumbling. He couldn't look to see if Levi had reacted to his deplorable display of weakness, he didn't have the strength to brush off Levi's hand that had taken away his sight, he couldn't see anything, he couldn't do a damn thing. The shadows were chasing him again, the blackness was choking him, the darkness was finally here to swallow him whole.

His eyes began fluttering towards the back of his skull, like the wings of a dying butterfly folding gently into itself, a sign of inevitable destruction.

He was slowly fading away into the murky dark, everything was hazy, he could taste a smokiness in his mouth, and his mind was faltering into an indistinguishable blackness. Cosigning into oblivion, Eren fell into the dark streams of unconsciousness once more.

That night, he dreamed of storm clouds.


End file.
